Portland secondary students will soon be equipped with laptops

Support from 7th-grade focus group overwhelmingly positive

Published
4:09 pm EDT, Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Portland Public School Technology Integration Specialist Michael Peck and Director of Curriculum and Technology Krista Karch show off the new Lenovo notebooks that will be given out to all district fifth- through 12-graders come mid-September. less

Portland Public School Technology Integration Specialist Michael Peck and Director of Curriculum and Technology Krista Karch show off the new Lenovo notebooks that will be given out to all district fifth- ... more

Photo: Jeff Mill — The Middletown Press

Photo: Jeff Mill — The Middletown Press

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Portland Public School Technology Integration Specialist Michael Peck and Director of Curriculum and Technology Krista Karch show off the new Lenovo notebooks that will be given out to all district fifth- through 12-graders come mid-September. less

Portland Public School Technology Integration Specialist Michael Peck and Director of Curriculum and Technology Krista Karch show off the new Lenovo notebooks that will be given out to all district fifth- ... more

Photo: Jeff Mill — The Middletown Press

Portland secondary students will soon be equipped with laptops

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PORTLAND >> As school opens, officials are about to provide students with a new approach to learning.

Using money from a variety of sources — including a $48,000 donation from the Gildersleeve Fund — school officials will distribute 775 Chromebooks to students in grades five through 12.

The distribution of these laptop computers will take place over the next two months, according to Krista Karch, district director of curriculum and technology. While the project is exciting one, “It is challenging. This is a cultural change,” she said.

To get the $200,000 in funds necessary to purchase the notebooks, “We made some sacrifices as well as looked at our budget and trimmed any fat that we could find,” Karch said. The school administration also looked at state programs and any offers from technology suppliers, she said. “We made sure our priorities were in order.”

Once students get the Lenovo N22s, it will mark the end of the nightmare of overstuffed backpacks that often seem to weigh more than the students struggling to carry them, officials said. What’s more, the laptops “will replace a lot of older machines that are getting to the end of their usable lives,” Technology Integration Specialist Michael Peck said.

That means an end to computer labs with their rows of wonky PCs, Peck said. And, in turn, that means reclaiming the rooms that had previously served as the computer labs, Karch said.

“The ‘beasts’ have left the building,” she remarked about the PCs.

Enabling students to access the Chromebooks also means embracing Superintendent of Schools Philip B. O’Reilly’s concept of new means of learning in a new century, Karch said.

“We’re looking at this initiative to provide more opportunities for 21st-century learning,” Karch explained.

It also comes at a time when “Kids are asking for access to the web” and teachers are moving to “use technology to support their lessons,” Karch said. “All our learning is moving online and that includes online textbooks.”

“Once they get the Chromebooks, students will be able to access texts at home with the books — as well as the resources that go with it,” Karch said. As it is, “many students are using computers now on an ongoing basis.”

The effort began last year, when 125 Chromebooks were doled out to seventh-graders. The goal was to “make our students become digital citizens of the 21st century,” the outgoing and buoyant Karch said. And, it was a success, she said.

“The rollout was absolutely seamless,” she said, both for students and teachers. “Now, we’d like replicate that initiative on a grander scale from grades five through 12.”

Before taking that step, however, Karch and the administration conducted a survey of seventh-graders to judge their response to the use of the Chromebooks.

“We got an amazing 76 responses,” she said.

Support for the program was unanimous.

“We were really surprised at some of the feedback,” Peck said. “They really took the time in their responses. And they really took ownership of it.”

The Chromebooks will be rolled out beginning on Sept. 15, when the middle schools get their notebooks.

“It was so seamless last year, and we want to make sure it’s the same this year,” Karch said.

Each student will receive a notebook which will have his/her name on it, Peck said, describing the Lenovo as “just a really nice machine.”

Teachers took their Chromebooks home for the summer to familiarize themselves with the notebooks, Peck said.

“We’re excited, and you can see the teachers are excited,” Karch said.

As are the students.

“It’s a point of pride when they get one,” Peck said, adding that the school department has worked “to make sure families have internet access at home.”

“We have some procedures in place to help our families with that,” Karch said.

And for families that don’t, “We’re working with local internet providers for a reduced rate,” she said.

The IT department has also taken steps to ensure the books cannot be misused or used to access inappropriate websites, Peck said. “We have software in place that provides filtering.”

The department is also working to find “apps that can serve as extra set of eyes and hands, Peck said, “so the technology works for them, not just with them.”

“We are so thankful to the Board of Education, the superintendent and to the Gildersleeve Fund. They’ve been great!” Karch said.

“As well as the district administrators,” Peck said. “Really, everyone had to adapt to make it work.”

“It’s a shared responsibility between the tech team and the building administrators. It’s been a nice collective effort — and a big win for Portland,” Karch said.